News: New grant received to model the quantity of wooden pallets in the U.S.

Wood pallets are a mode of carbon storage. Therefore, wood pallets are environmentally friendly and can help with emissions issues by capturing those emissions and storing them into the future, instead of allowing them to hurt the atmosphere. In order to estimate the impact that pallets are having for the environment, we need to collect data about how many pallets are in circulation and how long they remain usable.

Our director, Dr. Laszlo Horvath, has received a new grant from The Pallet Foundation to model the quantity of wooden pallets in circulation in the United States. The Pallet Foundation historically has funded many projects about the pallet market, dating back to the 1990s. Lucia Contreras (Image 1), who graduated with her bachelors in Industrial Production Engineering from the Tecnologico de Costa Rica, was selected to work on this graduate level research project for her Master’s degree.

The goal of Lucia’s research will be to model/estimate the number of wooden pallets that are in circulation in the U.S. As explained previously, in order to estimate the environmental impact of wooden pallets, we need to have this number. She will then also use this number to estimate how many times wooden pallets are repaired. The current published numbers state that there should be 2 billion wooden pallets in circulation; however, this comes from a study conducted by the Forest Service back in the 1980s.

Lucia’s research will use a combination of material flow modeling and econometrics to consider all inputs (new pallets manufactured, pallets repaired and reintroduced, imported pallets), outputs (exported pallets, pallets landfilled), and pallets that are circulated in a system (closed pools and pool pallets). She will analyze all of the collected data to discover the environmental impact of the wooden pallet market.